Organic contaminants, in particular volatile organic compounds (VOCs), are a significant problem in disk drive enclosures, where very high cleanliness requirements are necessary for proper performance. The organic compounds can accumulate on drive surfaces, including read-write heads and on the disks themselves, and can interfere with performance of the drives. In extreme cases the organic contaminants can lead to drive failure.
Adsorbent materials, such as activated carbon, are suitable for use in sequestering some hydrocarbon materials from within disk drive enclosures. However, activated carbon has limited performance on removing some hydrocarbons, including certain volatile organic compounds. Also, activated carbon has capacity limits, and can become saturated at heightened levels of contamination or following long term use, after which removal of hydrocarbons diminishes or stops.
Therefore, a need exists for a way to reduce organic compounds, in particular hydrocarbons, and especially volatile organic compounds, from within disk drive environments.